A somewhat clunky method I use is that I have a computer on the same network with the Chrome Browser. If the station has a website with an audio stream, I go there and using the cast feature, and I am able to hear the audio on any or all Google Home devices.

A somewhat clunky method I use is that I have a computer on the same network with the Chrome Browser. If the station has a website with an audio stream, I go there and using the cast feature, and I am able to hear the audio on any or all Google Home devices.

You'd get more for your buck by installing LMS on the laptop with the castbridge plugin

A somewhat clunky method I use is that I have a computer on the same network with the Chrome Browser. If the station has a website with an audio stream, I go there and using the cast feature, and I am able to hear the audio on any or all Google Home devices.

Thanks. I just tried casting from my Android phone to the Google Home and that did work. i didn't see an option to cast directly from Chrome but playing the station on Chrome I was able to cast the audio through the Google Home app on the phone.

On my Windows PC there is a Cast menu item on Chrome but so far I have been unable to get that to work. Will have to play with it a bit more.

Since I would have to control this setup from the computer or phone end rather than the Google Home end using the phone to cast it seems more useful than casting from my PC. The PC is in a different room than the Google Home but I can bring the phone with me to the room with the Google Home.

Of course one benefit of the Google Home is to just walk into the room and say "play XYZ" which I can't do with this solution but the speaker on the Google Home is better than the one on my phone so it still has some utility.

Glad you found that useful. I control my GH and smart home stuff with an Android box and I tried to cast from Chrome and also found it didn't work. The PC has to be on the same network as your Google Homes. Otherwise it should play fine. Put "radio.garden" in your browser URL window and you'll have lots to stream. Just get the stream going and then click on the cast tab.

To play mp3 files stored on my PC, I use a program called VLC. It works just as well on my Linux boxes. You can get small Windows PC boxes that will connect to a monitor or tv for not a lot of money. That might be useful placed in a room you are in more often. When you cast, you can tell your GH to change volume or stop. If you stop, the audio reverts back to your pc.